Woe unto Them
Category: Repentance & Restoration
Key Passage: Isaiah 5:20
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: July 12, 2024
It’s always a privilege to be with the Rutherford County Baptist Church, and we’re glad to be back with you. The last time we were here, we were saying our vows right up on this platform. Great memories as we were traveling through Smyrna and this area, just thinking about what the Lord had done here just about a year and a half ago. It’s good to be with you again. My testimony: I grew up in a Christian home. I praise the Lord for that, that I’ve had that opportunity.
The Lord has really worked in my heart. I remember when I was on my fifth birthday, the Lord began to work in my heart and deal with me about my sin. Even at a young age, five years old, while maybe I hadn’t committed a large sin, as we would say, it was sin nonetheless, even little sins, lies, disobedience, and a temper that condemned me to hell. I recognized that at a very young age, at five. My dad pulled me aside on a park bench and showed me the truth of God’s word, and I got saved right there.
Years later, through my parents, through my pastor working and praying for me, the Lord called me to ministry in fifth grade. I remember distinctly sitting in a service, a preaching conference, contemplating through that whole service: “Lord, what do you want me to do? Where am I going to go? Am I going to be an inventor? Am I going to be a contractor? What am I going to do?” It was just a still, small voice. I remember distinctly just the Lord impressing upon my heart, “I want you to be a gospel preacher.”
I surrendered to preach at a youth conference just a few years after that, after a lot of prayer, after a lot of counsel. I went through Bible College, and that’s where I met my now wife. We’ve been serving the Lord together at Northside Baptist Church in Nolanville, Texas—that’s just north of Austin, between Austin and Dallas. We’ve had a great time just ministering. I don’t regret one decision that I made for the Lord: the decision to follow the Lord out in Bible College, meeting my wife, and then serving out there. We’ve had a great time. We’ve been jumping in full force, doing about as much as we possibly can. My wife just finished teaching the four-year-old class at our Christian school there. She did a great job, and I’ve been working with our pastor. We’ve been directing our music. We had a beautiful choir. The Lord has really rallied together and working with our soul winning, and pray for that, if you will. I know our pastor has a real dear heart when it comes to reaching the lost. With all this COVID-19 stuff, we’ve had to kind of put the brakes on our organized soul winning. We’re still promoting, of course. We’re still going personally and preaching the gospel, carrying tracks with us. As we go to Walmart, we’re still giving out some things.
But we want to make an impact with this world with the little time that we have. There’s a lot of fear, but we choose to live by faith. That’s what’s directed us here and why we are able to stand before you today because of our faith in Jesus Christ and our faith on a daily basis to trust Him each and every day. We appreciate you allowing us to be here and look forward to being able to talk to you some more after the service.
Let’s go ahead and stand. Thank you so much, Brother Andrew. We appreciate the great message. He did a good job. And he has to go back home to get a break; we’re putting him to work while he’s here. He says there’s no vacation! Goodness gracious. But I appreciate it. It’s a blessing. Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter number five.
Isaiah chapter number five. Last Sunday, of course, was a patriotic weekend, the Fourth of July. Ms. Ritha went home to be with the Lord last Sunday morning, so we changed everything last Sunday. We just tried to follow the leading of the Lord and had a little bit of an impromptu memorial service for her. I believe the Lord was in that. By the way, I appreciate some of you traveling all the way—and I know some of you could not—but some of you traveled all the way to Kentucky for the service. That meant the world to Brother Glenn and the family. Ms. Reith is hearing the Lord preach again in heaven today. She’s doing real good, but it was a special time. So this Sunday we’re going to go back and kind of get a little bit of a patriotic theme this morning about her country. I believe we have about three hours of sermons and only about 45 minutes to cover it. So what do you think we ought to do?
I appreciate that, y’all, all four of you. Now you got the rest of the people all mad at you. It’s all their fault if it goes three hours, all right? But let’s see what the Lord will do. We’ll try to be wise about it, but get the truth in there. Isaiah, chapter number five, verse number 20. If you found that, would you please stand? And would you please say amen?
Good deal. Isaiah 5. In this portion of scripture, he’s giving woes, curses, if you will, to the nation of Israel. The Bible pronounces many woes. The Bible says, “Woe unto him that giveth his brother a drink,” in the book of Habakkuk. But we have to get to this. Preachers want to get on a lot of different subjects today, and we can’t get them all in. So we’ll try to stay focused on what the Lord wants. Isaiah 5, verse number 20. Would you look at that verse there? Here we go. The Bible says, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good, evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” Do you get that? Do y’all comprehend all that? Did you get it? Are you being honest with it right now? Good deal. Okay, somebody’s being honest with me. I appreciate it. We’re finding this so much in our day and time. They are calling good things evil, and the evil thing, just totally evil—boy, that’s a good thing right there! You find that all across America. That’s what this passage is talking about. There’s a curse when society gets to that point, and we’re just going to focus on that a little bit this morning.
Would you pray and ask God to direct me? And would you pray and ask the Lord to speak to your heart? Would you do so as I pray? Lord, we do come. I honestly, Lord, you know my heart. I sure want to say everything you want said, but nothing you don’t want said. Lord, maybe there’s a little phrase, something needs to be said. Lord, I would like to say that the one thing that helps somebody. My Lord, I do want to stay focused on what you want. Guide me, Lord. Then, Father, every single person here, youngest to the oldest, would you work in their heart, Lord, please? Father, would you ground us more in your word? And, Lord, at the end of the day, we’ll thank you and brag on you and praise you for what you do. It’s in Jesus’ name we ask these things. Amen.
Thank you for standing. You may be seated. I need four young people to volunteer for me today. Brother Anthony is still trying to be young, but he’s got… Two and a half? Well, no, he’s got three children already, you know that: two girls and the boy. The boy’s still in the womb, but it’s a boy, amen. So he’s not young anymore. But who have I got? Four young people. Four young people. Oh, I got a couple of them. Is it Daniel? Daniel. Daniel and I don’t know your name. Daniel and Jose, good deal. And Brandon, did you raise your hand back there? Brandon, we got Brandon. We’re getting all boys. Good deal. What’s your name? James. All right. I tell you what, Daniel, Daniel, we’re going to let you be first. Daniel, let me get one more thing here. This will get everybody’s interest. Daniel, we’ve got here a pack of M&Ms. I think you’ve got about seven of them. We’ve got cheese curls. We’ve got cheeses. We’ve got all kind of goodies in there. We’re going to put that right here. Daniel, would you come here? Daniel is going to be the person making the decision. By the way, praise the Lord for Daniel riding the bus. He’s been doing it for years. That’s a blessing. He says he wants the M&Ms. He’s ready to go. Is that what you said? Yeah. So he’s going to be our will. He makes the decision, okay? So Daniel, let’s get you in the middle here. I feel like you’ve already made your decision. He wants them, all right? We’re going to let—tell me again—Jose. Jose is going to be Daniel’s conscience, all right? Now, conscience is a thing that tells the will that’s making the decision whether the decision is right or wrong. Okay? This guy’s already made up his mind. You’ve got to help me out here, okay? Act like there’s a little leeway there, Daniel. So, Jose, your job, you’re the conscience, okay? That’s the will, the brain; he’s going to make the decision, okay? But your job is to tell him whether it’s right or wrong. You might want to say, “Man, Daniel, you’re going to have to go to the dentist if you eat all that sugar and that chocolate and everything.” You may want to say, “You’re going to get fat if you eat all that.” You may say, “Hang all that and eat it.” Okay, you’re going to be the conscience, okay? All right. So here’s our conscience. Jose, you’re our will, all right? You’re our conscience. All right. What are you, Daniel? He’s our will. Jose, what are you? He’s our conscience. Good, good, good. All right, help me out here. James, James here is going to be the Holy Spirit. Okay. Are you a good guy? Yeah. All right. Good deal. He’s the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit, of course, can work directly on his heart. But not only does the Holy Spirit do that, the Holy Spirit often works on our conscience. Let me read for you a verse. I don’t have it memorized. It is Romans 9:1, and it says this: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.” So the Holy Ghost helps keep the conscience right, right?
Now, here’s what we often forget. The conscience, it can have issues. The Bible uses these phrases: a pure conscience. Bible words here. The Bible uses the phrase a defiled conscience. The Bible uses this phrase a weak conscience. That’s not true with Jose; he’s got muscles made out. I can feel it. He’s strong, you know. There’s a seared conscience in the Bible. If I remember right, there’s a corrupt conscience in the Bible. So the Holy Spirit, if he’ll let him, the Holy Spirit will help the conscience stay right. Okay. But on that, Brandon, I’m sorry, man. You’re the last. Come on up, if you will. Brandon, you’ve got to play a bad guy here. Sorry about that, Brandon. Brandon is going to represent—you’re not going to be like me. Brandon is going to represent—can you put your horns up here?—he’s going to represent the devil. Sorry. He’s going to represent the world. Help me out. Who’s the god, the little ‘g’? Who’s the god of this world? Yeah, the devil, little ‘g.’ Who’s the prince and power of the air? Devil, Ephesians 2:2. Yeah, right. He represents the devil, the world, okay? And our flesh. Boy, in a decision like this, the flesh has got a lot of power, I’ll tell you for sure. Now, so here he represents the devil, the world, the flesh, and he can also affect the conscience in a great way. That’s how you end up with a defiled or corrupt or a weak conscience. See? So if you will, you guys are going to be working on the conscience here a little bit, all right? You’re going to be trying to convince the conscience that it is right for Daniel to eat that. You’re going to be trying to convince—you can be true. What’s that? He’s already made up his mind. Act like there’s a little question here: Are you going to eat that? Help me out. Yes! Oh! Get out of here. You can. No, no. All right. You’re trying to convince the conscience it’s right for him to eat that? At least work at it, okay? The Holy Spirit’s powerful; that’s God, omnipotent, amen. Trying to convince him it’s wrong. He’s going to have to go to the end of the speech, all that. He’s going to get four root canals by the time he’s 15 if he eats all that, all right? He’s going to be fat, weigh 400 pounds when he’s 20 if he eats all that, all right? You’ve got to convince him, all right? You’re going to work on the conscience, if you will. Go ahead. Go ahead and work on it. Brandon, come on. Do you work on it a little bit? You got to help me out. You can’t always eat it? It keeps your blood sugar up. If you eat this, it’s fine. If you eat this, it’s fine. Do you have bad side effects? Can you probably—hey, the Holy Spirit’s doing a good job. I tell you what, I like our Holy Spirit. Yeah, he’s doing a good job.
All right, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. What’s your decision, Daniel? We already know. I got to give them all something. He can’t take them all. There you go. Good job. Let’s give them all a hand. Let’s give them all here. Amen. They did good. They did a good job.
This is what’s happening all across America. We have Americans whose conscience is defiled because we have people calling evil good. And they’re calling good—did I say that already? I didn’t. All right. Good. They’re calling good evil, evil. And you see what happens. The Bible is clear: God blesses a nation that does right. Proverbs 14 says, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” That “any people” includes America, friend. It’s very clear. By the way, God’s the one that made America great because America back in the day had some morals and some desire for God. So God said, “I’m going to bless America.” That’s why America is great. But now we’re getting to the point—Satan says, “Well, I have a tough time getting people just to do wrong because they know they do wrong, and then they won’t get my blessing.” So here’s what Satan’s doing: He’s had a campaign for years trying to deceive people about what good is.
Take a young person, take some of these guys here—and I appreciate these guys—but take these guys if they grow up in a home where right or wrong is not instilled in them, and they go maybe to a school—I’m not saying all of them, but at some of these schools, a lot of the leaders have a very liberal agenda, especially our universities. They’re in the school, and then they’re in the university, and the world’s always, always, and the media’s always on the matter: “Well, what’s so bad about immorality and so on and so on?” After a while, it’s not a coincidence. Don’t be surprised that we have people coming out saying, “Well, what’s wrong with abortion?” Because your conscience has been defiled. And don’t be shocked. Don’t be surprised when they say, “Well, what’s wrong with homosexuals? It’s just an alternative lifestyle.” Friend, their conscience has been messed up for years over this thing. That’s exactly what we have going on in America all across the board. That’s why we have so many people that think socialism is a good thing.
I like what the Bible says: If a man don’t work, he ought not to eat. But that’s where we’re at, friend, and people are calling evil—they’re calling bad things—it’s right to give a woman a choice, and many of them believe that. Now, can I just say this along that line? I’m getting ahead of myself: Hey, it’s right to give that baby a choice, amen? But that’s where we’re at. That’s why we have America where people sincerely don’t know what right or wrong is.
So what’s the answer to the problem? Let’s just give a couple of answers to the problem where we’re at. We have a curse on our country because we have so many calling evil things good and good things evil. So what’s the answer to it? Well, there are a lot of things we’ll mention. But first of all, praise the Lord for the old book right there that doesn’t change. Praise the Lord, society changes. The newscasters can say what they want. Universities can change. By the way, check out textbooks. If you put your faith in textbooks, check out how much they’ve changed in the last 50 years just on science alone. Praise the Lord, I’ve got something that doesn’t change right there: the King James Bible.
What’s the answer to this thing where our conscience is being defiled and we don’t know what right or wrong is? The book. That’s why those that are trying to affect their conscience—that’s why they don’t want the Bible to be in schools. That’s why they’re trying to take the Ten Commandments off the courthouse because that’s the thing that they stub their toe on every time. And they want to say, “Well, what’s wrong with so?” And some old-fashioned Christian, praise the Lord for them, says, “Well, because the Bible says it’s wrong.” That’s why. In their heart of hearts, they can say, “There’s no God,” but according to Romans 1:20, just from creation, they know there’s a God. When you say you get God’s word, they don’t like that. It bothers them. And their conscience gets convicted by the Holy Spirit. Man, James did a good job. And that book just doesn’t change, so they like to remove the book. A lot of our founding fathers knew that. That’s why the first Bibles printed in the United States—20,000 of them—were printed to be used in our school system.
Check out the primer they used to teach your kids to spell and how much Bible was in that. Horace Greeley said, “It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.” Psalm 119:130: “The entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” What’s the answer to society, to the point where they’re calling all these evil things good? What’s the answer to it? The Bible. I know it’s a Sunday morning crowd, but friend, that’s why it’s very important we don’t get these funny Bibles that are changing everything. Because if they can go ahead and just change the book, then we’ve lost where to stand. If I’m the one to decide which version I like, I’ve got an issue with that. The book is so important. Bible. One of the professors at the college I graduated from—back in 1857 when I graduated, amen—I appreciate that both very much. Did it come to the altar, both of them? By the way, we have revival going on. Brother Kevin’s on the second row up here. Look at that. Wow. Brother Andrew said it. I got him up on the second row, something like that. I said, “Are you still part of the family after that?” Now, I forgot what I was going to say, amen. Got me on that one, Brother Kevin on the front of the second row, wow.
Back in 1857 when I graduated Bible college—that’s what it was—someone asked one of our professors, “What’s the invention in the last 100 years that saved the most lives?” His answer was interesting. He said, “The line in the middle of the road.” He said if there wasn’t a line in the middle of the road, we’d be having collisions all over the place if we got on each other’s side. I thought, well, that’s pretty interesting. Professors must have a brain up there. My goodness, I like that. Hey, that’s the line in the middle of the road right there. That’s what our country needs: the Bible. That’ll clean up the conscience. It’ll get the conscience right.
What’s the answer to this thing where they call evil good and good evil? What’s the answer? The Bible. What’s the answer to it? Bible-based homes.
I met Ruth, counting her four sisters, and they were raised in good Christian homes. I was talking to her sisters yesterday, and one of them said, “You know, from the time—the first place we ever went, from the time I remember—we were poor, and the first place we ever went was church.” She said, “I remember Mom and Dad holding their hands. They would walk”—it sounded like they had to walk for a little bit on a railroad track—“but Ms. Ree—they call her up there Miss Ree, you know—Miss Reed, she wasn’t the oldest, but towards the younger side. I remember Mom and Dad holding her hand, and her legs dangling sometimes as we walked to church.” Hey, when we get more homes like that where Dad and Mom Sunday morning say, “Hey, we’re going to go hear the Bible. We’re going to learn about the Bible on Sunday. We’re going to get in church.” Well, praise the Lord. I was raised in a good Christian home. I remember often getting up and Dad being in the chair out in the living room with his Bible open. Thank God, I’ve walked in on my mom a time or two in her prayer closet, her over there praying and shedding tears. Praise the Lord, if those children get raised in a home where it gets instilled in them that the Bible is what we go by, there’s something there, friend. Oh, how we need it, where Dad backs up the Bible, Mom backs up the Bible. I mean, any discussions in my house growing up—I mean, some of them were light discussions, and sometimes they were knock-down, drag-out discussions, you know what I’m saying—but if somebody had a verse to back it up, that trumped everybody. The Bible said it. That’s good for me to grow up like that. We’ll have homes where the Bible’s instilled in people.
What’s the answer to it? Bible preaching. “God hath chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” He has manifested his word through preaching. We had the privilege of going on vacation a couple of weeks ago. We went to our old church, and Pastor Carter married us back in—I got to be careful because my wife is in this one here—27 years ago. Pastor Carter, he’s 83, and in January, he’ll be at that church 50 years. Pastor Carter, I told my wife, she described him so well: He’s like an old war general, you know, been through so many battles. We sat down to take about lunch, and he likes to tell his war stories, you know. I told him, “Pastor Carter’s not going to change. He’s not going to back down about anything. They’re going to have to bury that guy standing up.” He’s just not going to lay down about anything. My friend, that’s the key to America. I had the privilege of preaching there. One of the first things I said: “Men that the world cannot change are the men that change the world.”
Friend, an old preacher gets up there. The Bible says this in Isaiah 58, verse number one: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” That’s part of preaching. And old preacher sometimes it makes you mad, but it gives you some of them preachers on sin, and in your heart you say, “Well, doggone, the guy’s right right there.” And it clears up your conscience. You know, that’s what the Indian said when the dog jumped off the cliff: “Dog gone,” you know. You got to think about that for a while. I don’t mean that in a bad term, but yeah, Bible preaching. Somebody every once in a while just kind of rear back and say, “Hey, it is what it is.” Praise the Lord for those preachers down through the years that have stood against abortion. You know, 19 times the Bible uses this phrase, “innocent blood.” Boy, those little babies, nothing more innocent. You know, I got to talk about her grandson. Come on now, I’m a grandpa now, you know. How much time you got? Amen, you know. He’s born, five pounds, ten ounces, three weeks premature, all that. Little fellow. Man, you talk about innocent. That little baby is so innocent. And, friend, with their murdering innocent blood, the Bible says the land is marred. Ireland’s marred? Well, they say it’s a fetus, but the Bible calls it a child. The Bible says the babe in the womb leaped. The Bible says, well, one of them that are with child—“And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb.” They don’t like that because that goes against everything they believe in and stand for, and yet the old Bible keeps stubbing their big toe on it. Hell, I don’t like that. But somebody says, “Hey, the Bible says that’s murder. You’re just snuffing the life of that little bit. You’re just killing, you’re murdering that child.”
Look, if you will, along that line. Look over in Proverbs 24, if you would, Proverbs chapter 24, just quickly, why would they—might as well get some of these subjects in here. Proverbs 24, I advise everybody to look up this one here because pretty soon you’re going to have a chance to vote. You better check out how the person you’re voting on stands on this issue because God—God’s going to hold you responsible according to his word right here. Look and see what God, not the pastor, but God says about this subject here. Proverbs 24, look in verse number 11. Proverbs 24, verse number 11. When you find that, would you say, amen? Proverbs 24. Look at verse number 11. He says, “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death,” a little child about to get killed because that little needle is coming in through the womb and into the head, into the skull, off from the back of the neck of that little baby, and they’re going to inject that thing, and it’s going to inject a saline solution to the other that’s going to murder that baby. Or they may get a vacuum cleaner to tear the baby’s body parts apart. Yeah. “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain, if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not.” You can say that all you want, but what does God say? “Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth the soul, doth not he know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his works?”
We had a guy in our church years ago, and he often liked candidates that were for abortion. This was years ago. I believe it was President Obama. After the election, he wanted to argue about it. I’d tell him, “Paul, don’t argue. You know where he’s going to go.” He’d always get me arguing. I couldn’t just say nothing about it, you know. But finally, after one of those times Obama got in there—by the way, it’s not President Obama anymore, amen, Ex-President Obama—but one of those times he got in, he came to me. He said, “Well, Pastor, all right, we didn’t vote for him because we didn’t want to hear you for the next four years yell and scream about abortion.” And I said, “Praise the Lord, that’s the victory right there.” That’s part of it. The old book and an old preacher yelling about the truth was working on his conscience. That’s what keeps us and keeps American society knowing what right or wrong is. That’s part of it.
So many subjects there. Sodomy. You say, “What’s that?” That’s homosexuality. Friend, it’s pretty clear where God stands on that when you consider the fire and brimstone that came down on Sodom and Gomorrah. Friend, I don’t care if it’s Old Testament; that’s Bible. Actually, the New Testament in Jude 7 says that was an example. That’s New Testament. Talk about that. So that was an example for all of us.
Friend, even now, they’re trying to change our mindset about police, law officers. Friend, there are over 600,000 law officers in the United States of America. If one messes up, it won’t change your mind about all of them. Did you know that last year—some will go much higher than this—but last year in the United States, there were over 250,000 deaths, many call it the third leading cause of death in the United States, due to medical malpractice? I’d like to see him go on the street and write about that. That’s 250,000. Some say up to 440,000 have died due to medical malpractice in the United States alone. Check it out if you don’t believe that. Friend, it’s rebellion. And friend, the Bible—the old book—the old book says rebellion is as witchcraft. If somebody does wrong, let’s take care of that man that did wrong. But they’ll go out the next week and kill seven other police officers. But if they can get their mindset that the police officers are our enemy—friend, the Bible says, there it is again, the Bible says in Romans 13, God has allowed them to be in that place, and I am to respect them. Yeah. But if we’re not careful, society will change our mindset. And if society, we’re not careful, we get a guy when he stands up and just tells the truth of the Lord of God, people get mad at him. They were trying, by the way—praise the Lord for a president that’s changed some of this—but they were trying to get it where a guy stands up and preaches on some of these sins, and they call it “hate crimes,” “hate speech.” Canada, some of those preachers got put in jail, by the way. Yeah. Why? Because we get a society where they call evil good, and good evil. I don’t hate those individuals. I love them, but somebody’s got to tell the truth, because that keeps our conscience right. See? And if I’m not careful, the old world, the flesh, and the devil, it’ll defile—it’ll defile my conscience.
Let me just say, and this is a little sensitive subject. I love African-American people, and I mean that. I love them. In fact, we went on vacation. We stopped a little bit south of Atlanta and stayed in the motel. The next morning, we woke up and went and had breakfast. There was a lady in there serving—an African-American lady, sweet lady—and I got to lead her to the Lord Jesus Christ. I was so thankful. It made my day. It’s a blessing to me. She told me this: She said they’ve had that writing and all that around here; it’s a protest. But she said, “I just didn’t feel like that was right. It’s not just black lives that matter. It’s everybody’s life that matters.” Well, I was all about that. I quoted John 3:16, “For God so loved the world.” Yeah. God doesn’t look at our skin; He sees our heart. I love that individual. It doesn’t matter. You can have old skin burnt like mine or whatever color it is, but God loves that individual, all of them. Yeah. We all have an old sinful heart, whether it’s black or whatever color you have. Yeah. We used to sing that song. Have you ever sung that song? “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.” All the children of the world. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You say, “I am.” I don’t know about you getting on all these subjects. Friend, if Satan can just get us to quieten down, he’ll be happy about it.
What’s the answer? Well, the nation, if it’s going to have a good conscience, it needs the Bible in there. It needs some good biblical homes. It needs some good preaching. It needs some good churches. The Bible says this in 1 Timothy 3:15. We don’t quote the whole verse, but the last part of that verse, 1 Timothy 3:15, it says the church, “which is the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Now, I have to explain that always when I’m preaching in Tennessee or Kentucky. He’s not talking about the pillar you lay your head on, amen. Just like we have these columns with these pillars right here. The pillar and the ground, the foundation of the truth—the church is supposed to hold the truth up, where even the world, even if they’re not saved, they see and they know what the truth is because the church is holding it up. If you will, it’s the moral conscience of a nation: the church. That’s why the Bible calls us salt.
I heard tell—I’ve never done this, but I’ve heard—a cow, you know, they lay down and they won’t get up. Cows are pretty heavy. That old farmer, he can’t get his cow up; it just won’t get up. If they stay laying down for hours and hours, all of those four stomachs they have inside there, they’re going to die. So that old farmer has to get them up, and he can’t get them up. They say he’ll slice the tail of that cow sometimes, and then he’ll put salt in there. Oh, and that salt gets in there, that cow’s going to stand up. He’s going to start running. He’s going to get him standing up. Why? Because that salt burns. And the Bible calls us Christians to be salt. I don’t like to be mean. I don’t like that. I like to be liked, if it can be, but most important, I’d rather be liked by God. But that salt, it ought to have some savor about it. We ought to stand for something. Stand in love, but stand nonetheless. We’re called to be the salt, the light of the world. And a church ought to have that.
You know, Satan, his goal is always to divide and conquer. If he can get a Christian out of church—you know Elijah? He was out in the middle of the wilderness. He was all alone. Remember Elijah? He was over there having that pity party. He was all alone out there, and he said, “Oh, Lord, I’m no better than my fathers. Go ahead and take me home. I’m the only one standing.” Remember that? What God said? “Hey, bud, there are 7,000 that haven’t bowed their knee to Baal.” Now, here’s the thing: You get away from God’s people, you lobby to get just like Elijah sucking your old thumb, “Oh, it’s so bad, nobody else is standing.” But when you come to church, you say, “Well, there’s a bunch of us nuts around here trying to stand for the Lord Jesus Christ.” My way, it’s all right to be a nut as long as you’re screwed onto the bolt of Jesus Christ. Amen. Yeah. That’s part of church. It’s the headquarters of you. You come there and old Brother John standing out at work, and Brother Frank’s witnessing in his neighborhood, and Sister so-and-so being a good Christian in her job, and you get there and you get strengthened by numbers. “Well, others are trying to stand for the Lord. Just think, I can stand for the Lord too.” America needs a whole lot of good churches. By the way, in the end times, during the tribulation period, there’ll be no churches standing. Oh, there’ll be churches, plenty of them, but not standing for truth. They’ll be false prophets, false churches. They’ll be very religious, but not godly and not Christ-like. Churches—what’s the answer? Good churches. What’s the answer? This guy right here. This guy right here. Oh, James. James, you stand up here one more time. Would you stand up one more time for me, man? James did a good job like the Holy Spirit. He did a great job. But we need a revival of the Holy Spirit moving across our country, putting the fear of God in this world. And the Holy Spirit—well, some revivals have come in the worst times of this country. Yet the Holy Spirit just moved across. Hey, listen, it was that crowd that cried, “Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!” It was that same crowd in Jerusalem. 3,000 got saved a little while later on. 5,000 men saved later on. What happened? The Holy Spirit came. Power. Thank you, James. I appreciate it.
Now, here’s what I’m getting. We need a moving of the Holy Spirit. How do you get that? Well, one key is prayer. Before the Holy Spirit came in power at Pentecost, they had a 10-day long prayer meeting. Oh, would God—had God’s people, all of us—just, just our prayer calls us hot and fervent and wet with tears, begging and pleading, “God, we need your moving in our country.” Can I say this? Our complaining is not going to solve anything, but our prayers can do a whole lot. But when God’s people say, “Oh, Lord, it’s time for you to move and work.” When God’s people pray, it’s interesting. George Washington, the father of our country, many call him that. George Washington had a journal of prayer book. June 1, 1774, went to church and fasted all day long. Pretty good. “Our weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” Prayer was one of our weapons. You ever see one of these movies where this guy’s doing all that, and I know karate and Jiu-Jitsu and all the rest of that? The other fellow pulls out and he says, “I know 45,” you know, buddy. Hey, that’s prayer right there. Pull out the weapon of prayer. Yeah. Holy Spirit move. By the way, as we get close to the election, we’ll have church prayer meetings. We’re going to try to organize that thing, get us just praying. We’ve got to have God’s people praying. Holy Spirit moving and working.
I got to hurry along. I talked about the Bible, biblical homes, and Bible preaching, good churches, the Holy Spirit moving, just getting the truth out. I’ve already quoted that Bible verse: “The entrance of the word giveth light, giveth understanding unto the simple.” We were on vacation in Florida down there. There are toll booths everywhere in Florida. It’s not—amen, it’s old me. Oh, my goodness. They take all your money. My goodness. But all of them got a tract. Same like God’s been plowing in the field a little bit. They’re all kind of glad to get it. Brother Glenn was in the hospital with his wife so many weeks. Brother Glenn said, “Man, those hospitals, they got tracts all over the place.” Just whatever we can get the Word of God out. Boy, they need the Bible. This whole world needs it. I like it. We used to have them. We haven’t had them in for a while, but maybe we’ll try to get them back in: the one ministry where they print Bible signs you put in your yard. I still got one in my front yard, on the side of a—some people, we live on the dead end, so people can see it out there. But I just didn’t get word out. Have you had working? Discussions are going on. Hey, get your Bible verse and quote it out loud to them. They might think of them, but that’s all right. You see, their conscience—Satan’s all about defiling that conscience, but those old Christians, they just won’t change if they’re grounded in the Bible.
Let me just try to encourage you for a second on this line. We’ve got to be done. Look over in Isaiah. We’re already there. Look over in Isaiah 1, verse number 9. I didn’t have time to finish everything, but let me just say: Vote. Go out and vote biblical values. Isaiah 1, verse number 9. Isaiah 1, look at verse number 9 of God’s Word. Isaiah 1:9. He says, “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant.” He said, “Preacher, we’re not real big.” That’s all right. “A very small remnant.” “Except the Lord of hosts had left in us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been likened to Gomorrah.”
He’s saying, look, God’s destruction, God’s judgment would have come, but there’s just this very small group of people that just would not change. I just kept saying, “Hey, we’re just going to go with what Jehovah says. We think that’s right, and we’re going to stand here. If everybody else thinks it’s wrong, that’s all right. We know it’s right because the Bible says it’s right.” Here’s the thing: God so often looks at that very small remnant. You check it out before he brings his destruction on the country, on Israel. He says, “Let me check there. See if there’d be a man that’s standing in the gap, making up the hedge for the land.” He said, “Let me check out the house of God.” That’s where judgment starts. Let me look at it always. God looks and he says, “Well, how is my people? Has society swayed my people where even my people think evil is good and good is evil?” Friend, you say, “What’s the answer to America?” You are. And old people said, “We’re just not going to change.” Somebody a long time ago, or maybe last week, somebody grounded me in that word, and I just believe that, and I’m going to go with that right there. Except it wasn’t for that little bit of a group of people—a very small remnant. God said, “I’d have poured out that fire and brimstone like I did on Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Oh, friend, this week, I think it was, I read Psalm 136. Every verse in that chapter of the Bible says, “The mercy of the Lord endureth forever.” As long as God’s people are saying, “Lord, we need some mercy here. We’re going to try to do right. We’re going to try to follow your word,” there’s hope for America. Well, there’s no hope for America? No! The mercy of the Lord endureth forever. And God’s people say, “I’m going to keep my conscience right by the word of God. I’m going to get in the word every morning. I’m going to get in there and try to read it and let it get my conscience just right and find out what right or wrong is.” And we keep standing on the truth. God said, except it wasn’t for a small group of people wherever they may be. When we get to heaven one day, it’s not going to be all these people that everybody sees that is going to be promoted. It’s going to be those old-fashioned Christians that wouldn’t change, that stood on the book. Those are the heroes of America right there.
Have you ever sung that song? “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” That’s the hope of America. God’s people just shining, letting His word, His truth be known.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Would you please? Heads bowed, eyes closed. You say, “Preacher, I need to get back to shining.” It may be at work. It may be at a family reunion. It may be in the prayer closet. It may be witnessing. It may be getting back to the book. But I need to get back to shining. I let the devil, the world, and all these things just put a dimness on my light. God spoke to my heart. I want to get back to shining. I want to shine brightly for the Lord in our day and time. God spoke to my heart about that. If that’s you, just raise your hand behind the preacher—that’s me right there. That’s me right there. God bless you all. We need you. You’re shining all across this land, God’s people. Praise God for you. You’re the hope. You’re the hope. Thank you so much. Many hands. Thank you so much. Maybe there’s one more person, preacher. I’ve allowed Satan to kind of put my light out. I’ve allowed Satan to turn my volume down. I need to get back to shining. Anybody else? Maybe one more. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so very much. God bless you. That’s great. Thank you so much. You can put your hands down.
Maybe you hear this morning and you say, “Preacher, I need to turn off all the polls.” And maybe even what family says, what society says, and I need to let the Bible dictate what is right or wrong to me. I’ve gotten away from that. I need to study the Bible about finances, whatever decision, morality, whatever it is. I need to get back to letting the Bible dictate to me what is right and what is wrong. God spoke to my heart. I need to get back searching the book for what’s right and wrong. God spoke to my heart about that. If that’s you, just raise your hand. Preacher, I need to get back to that. God bless you. Oh, me too, me too. It’s amazing. Even in the Christian realm, so many times, I’ll let maybe people influence me more than the book. God can use godly people, but it must go back to the book. Preacher, I’ve not been allowing the Bible to dictate to me what’s right or wrong. God spoke to my heart about that. God bless you. Thank you so very, very much, friend. You can put your hands down.
I did not get to mention salvation like I would like to have. Friend, the old book says God loves sinners. We’re all there, myself included. He loves you so much that He sent His only begotten Son. He lived in this sin-cursed world for 33 years, and He shed His blood for you. He loves you. He cares for you. He has longed for you to go to heaven and be with Him for all eternity, and He has provided a way for you to go to heaven through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. If you’re there and you say, “I don’t know that heaven’s my home. I’m not saved. I know I’m not going to heaven, but I need to be saved. I need to settle this thing.” Oh, friend, today would be a great day. If that’s you, whether you may be in the auditorium here or maybe online, you say, “Preacher, I need to get saved.” If that’s you, right there where you are, would you, in your heart, call out to Jesus? Would you tell Him, wherever you are, would you tell Him, “Oh, Jesus, I’m a sinner. I can’t save myself. I have broken your laws. But I believe Jesus died for me. And right now, Jesus, I’m coming to you. Would you pay for all my sins? Would you come into my heart? Would you save me? Thank you. Thank you, Jesus, for giving me that gift and making me your child.” In Jesus’ name I pray.
If you said, “Preacher, I just asked Jesus Christ to be my Savior”—never had before—“but I just asked Jesus Christ to be my Savior.” If that’s you wherever you are, would you just slip your hand up, preacher? Just ask you, just call on Jesus to be my Savior. If you’re online, would you look below there down on YouTube and just click on that? We’ll send you a Bible and literature. Thank you so much. Welcome to the family of God. Hey, let’s shine for the Lord.
It’s not a day and time to back up and to quieten down. It’s a day and time in love to stand, to shine. Except for the very small remnant. Let’s keep being the remnant for the Lord. Let’s have a great time during the invitation. Just come spend some time praying for our country. Would you all stand? Would you stand, please? We’re going to have a word of prayer. Our instruments will play. There’ll be some men down front if you need to talk or pray with someone, or you need to know for sure you’re going to heaven. There’ll be some men down front you can talk with them. Would you do so? Let’s pray. Let’s just spend some time saying, “Lord, would you work on the conscience of our country?” Would you pray? And you come. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, you know I would be so swayed; I can be swayed by people, but thank the Lord, your word doesn’t change. Father, help us to hang on to the anchor, if you would—your word—and help us shine brightly for you. Lord, we’ll brag on you. We’ll thank you for it. Bless our people. Lord, if there’s one here not saved, let them know we love them. Let them get saved, Father, please. We’ll thank you, Lord, for what you do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Would you come? Don’t wave from the back. Would you come? Just spend some time praying for our country. Would you come? Not sure heaven’s your home? Would you come?
Original File: Woe unto Them - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday 71220 AM